A structured exercise program may boost the physical well-being
of sedentary seniors who are at risk of losing independent functioning,
a new study to be published in the November 2006 Journal of
Gerontology: Medical Sciences has found. The study also showed that the program
holds promise for lowering older people’s chances of major
walking disability, and that older adults can safely begin a program
of moderate exercise.

The findings are reported in a special section of the journal
addressing the effects of exercise in older people.

The magnitude of the effects was encouraging to the researchers,
who said that the pilot study confirms the feasibility and safety
of testing the approach in a larger, more definitive randomized
clinical trial involving older adults.

Results of the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders  or
LIFE  pilot study will be presented Nov. 17 at the Gerontological
Society of America’s annual scientific meeting. The research,
supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a component
of the National Institutes of Health, was conducted at four field
centers nationwide. The University of Florida was the administrative
coordinating center.

“As U.S. life expectancy rises, functional decline and disability
among older people are growing public health and clinical concerns,” says
NIA Director Richard J. Hodes, M.D. “This pilot study helps
us to understand better the relationship between exercise training
and mobility, which is a key to maintaining older adults’ independence
and quality of life, and provides a basis for designing more definitive
large-scale clinical trials.”

“Lower-extremity functioning is a very powerful marker for
overall function and the risk of disability. This research suggests
that a multi-faceted program of aerobic, strength, balance and
flexibility exercises can make a difference for older adults by
significantly improving their walking ability,” adds Jack
M. Guralnik, M.D., Ph.D., acting chief of the NIA’s Laboratory
of Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry.

Participants were invited to join the study if they exercised
for fewer than 20 minutes a week; were between 70 and 89 years
of age; and had a low physical performance battery score, which
is based on three assessments: walking speed, balance and the ability
to rise from a chair. At the start of the study, participants had
to walk 400 meters  about a quarter of a mile  within
15 minutes without sitting or using an assistive device such as
a cane. The participants were followed for an average of 1.2 years.

Half of the 424 study participants were randomly assigned to a
year-long physical activity program incorporating individualized
counseling and supervised and home-based exercises that included
endurance, strengthening, flexibility and balance training. The
other half of the participants  the control group  took
part in a “successful aging” health education program
that discussed nutrition, medications, foot care, preventive services
and other health topics, and included instructor-led arm and shoulder
flexibility exercises.

At six and 12 months, scientists found that average physical performance
scores for the exercise group were significantly better than those
of the control group. They also found that by the end of the trial,
people in the exercise group were more likely to maintain their
400-meter walking speed.

“This analysis showed that, compared with those who received
health education, participants in the physical activity group had
a lower risk of becoming unable to walk 400 meters,” says
the study’s principal investigator, Marco Pahor, M.D., of
the University of Florida, Gainesville. “This finding is
encouraging, although the pilot study was not large enough to reach
a definitive conclusion. A larger-scale study could provide invaluable
data about the importance of physical activity in older adults.”

The four study field centers were the Cooper Institute (Dallas,
Texas), Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.), the University
of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem,
N.C.). The project also included investigators at Yale University
(New Haven, Conn.); Tufts University (Boston, Mass.); the University
of California, San Diego; and the University of California, Los
Angeles. Wake Forest University served as the Data Management,
Analysis and Quality Control Center.

To reach the principal investigator, Marco Pahor, M.D., University
of Florida, Gainesville, contact Denise Trunk at 352-273-5819 or
dtrunk@ufl.edu.

The NIA leads the federal effort supporting and conducting
research on aging and the medical, social and behavioral issues
of older
people. For more information on research and aging, please visit
the NIA’s Web site at www.nia.nih.gov. Consumers can also
contact the National Institute on Aging Information Center at 1-800-222-2225
for free information on a variety of health topics.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and
Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting
and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research,
and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and
its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
Reference: LIFE Study Investigators. (2006). Effects of a physical
activity intervention on measures of physical performance: Results
of the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders pilot
(LIFE-P) study. Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences: 61A(11);1157-1165.